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Principle 6 - Good Practice Communicates High Expectations

Chickering and Gamson noted that faculty should expect:

“more and you will get it. High Expectations are important for everyone - for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert themselves, and for the bright and well motivated. Expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions hold high expectations of them and make extra efforts”

Graham et al (2003) had three good suggestions for communicating high expectations in online classes.  First, they suggested giving challenging assignments.  They noted that in one study, the instructor assigned tasks requiring students to apply theories to real-world situations rather than remember facts or concepts. This case-based approach involved real-world problems with authentic data gathered from real-world situations.

A second way in which they suggested communicating high expectations was to provide examples or models for students to follow, along with comments explaining why the examples are good. A good example is providing examples of the types of interactions one expects from the discussion forum. One faculty member gave an example of an exemplary posting along with two other examples of what not to do, highlighting trends from the past that this faculty wanted students to avoid.

Third, they noted that publicly praising exemplary work in itself communicates high expectations.

Other techniques are effective at communicating expectations.  A Knowledge Survey is a method of evaluating the delivery of a course through gathering feedback from the learners on the level of the knowledge they acquired after the completion of the instruction. It usually consists of a series of questions that cover the full content of the course. The surveys evaluate student learning and content mastery at all levels: from basic knowledge and comprehension through higher levels of thinking. Knowledge surveys can serve as both formative and summative assessment tools. They are effective in helping students learn, faculty improve their delivery, and departments explore new approaches to teaching.
The key feature of Knowledge Surveys is that students do NOT answer the questions. Instead, they say whether they COULD answer the question and with what degree of confidence.  For example, a typical multiple choice answer could be of the following form:

1. I know the topic quite well.   
2. I know the at least 50% of the topic partially, and I know where I can find more information about it. Within 20 minutes, I am confident I can find the complete answer.  
3. I am not confident I can answer the question.

Delores Knipp used online knowledge surveys at the beginning and end of her physics course and reported (Knipp, 2001):

“Besides providing insight into how to focus instructional efforts, this knowledge survey acted as a course road-map for the students and me.  The survey served as a vehicle to convey to students the conceptual knowledge they should possess at the end of the course.  At the end of the course the survey gave my students a qualitative measure of their knowledge gain over the semester.  I presented a summary of the results to the class at the end of the semester.  Additionally, I was able to verify that student impressions of their knowledge level were borne out by the final exam results.”

Rubrics are also an excellent way to communicate high expectations (TLT Group, 2004).  By providing both the anticipated end result and measures for minimum, good, and exemplary performance, faculty give online students the tools they need to meet expectations.

High expectations apply to processes as well as end products like homework, discussions, or projects.  Faculty should implicitly state expectations about attendance (time requirements per week or module), professionalism in communication, and netiquette.

Setting and managing expectations is always important in any class.  Online, it is important to set the expectations on quality and quantity of work, degree of interaction, levels of communication, and learning outcomes.  Set expectations high and your online students will rise to meet the challenge!